International Master Ravi Teja of RSPB is maintaining lead with 7½ points after the 9th round of the 54th National Challengers Chess Championship 2016 at Amity University Noida.

Following the leader half a point behind at seven points were GrandMaster Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan of Kerala, and GrandMaster Sriram Jah of LIC.

International Master Ravi Tejas RSPB did not take risk against fellow player International Master S Nitin in a Caro Kann game. Early Queen exchange resulted draw in 21 moves.

On the second board International Master Ramnath Bhuvanesh of Tamil Nadu employed Sicilian Mascow variation with GrandMaster S L Narayanan. Narayanan won a Pawn on move 21, with a tactical combination. Using the material advantage in the Rook and Pawn endgame Narayanan won the game on move 65.

In another interesting game between Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad and Bakre Tejas witnessed Queen Pawn opening. Bakre opened the ‘h’ file and initiated the attack but Bala Chandra counter attacked on the centre, piece sacrifices came from both players, finally the game ended in a draw on move 52.

One more interesting game between Sai Vishwesh of Tamil Nadu and GrandMaster Sriram Jah of LIC. In a Ruy Lopez Breyer game, Sai went attack on the king side but Sriram opened the ‘c’ file which allowed his Rook on the seventh rank. Sai did not persist the attack of Sriram and resigned on move 40.